HEAP of JEEP Posted September 19, 2016 Share Posted September 19, 2016 I've been working hard, trying to keep my tables full at a weekly farmers market/artisan show, and have been finding it very difficult to produce knives in my limited forge time. So, with no knives on my tables, I needed to bust one out quick. With no time it forge up a damascus billet, I went with another cable knife. I tried a new technique of leaving the cable running along the spine. It made forging it a lot more difficult since I was only welding it from the sides, but I ultimately got a solid blade out of it. There's a couple of spot near the transition to the handle that I was concerned about, but after clamping it in the vice and torquing on it with some real force, they didn't show any signs of movement, so I'm thinking they are mainly just on the surface and everything underneath is solid. This didn't sell over the weekend, but It drew enough attention to get me three knife orders... now to find the time to make the knives and still keep the tables full. What have I gotten myself in to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Nice one Heap! so how well are farmers markets for selling items at?? I like the spine of the knife, something I've seen, but never tried. Now I just may have too.... Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin Quade Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 I love the pattern that you got with this one and the fact that the handle shows people less versed in knife making what it was made from really appeals to me. I recently successfully forge welded my first piece of cable and im very excited to see what it etched like now. What did you use for your etching? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Nice work Heap. Spine and patern look great. Glad your doing well selling at the market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheoRockNazz Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 That's looking pretty sexy, lovin the blade shape. That inclusion on the right side ricasso worries me because it carries through into the plunge line, which means it's in there pretty deep. Make sure that the person buying it understands it's a light to medium duty knife; no chopping or similar heavy use. I like where these are going - I'm always a big fan of integrals - keep forgin them to build stock especially if they sell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HEAP of JEEP Posted September 20, 2016 Author Share Posted September 20, 2016 18 hours ago, littleblacksmith said: Nice one Heap! so how well are farmers markets for selling items at?? I like the spine of the knife, something I've seen, but never tried. Now I just may have too.... Littleblacksmith The farmers market that I go to bills itself as a farmers/artisan market. Most weekends its split about 50/50 between farmers and crafters. I've had some really good weekends, and some really bad ones. One week, right before Labor Day, I sold absolutely nothing. The weekends on either side of that one, I sold a ton, so once its averaged out, I guess I still did ok. My schedule at work changed this week, which opened up my afternoons enough for me to try a weekday evening farmers/artisan market a lot closer to my house. There's only a couple of weeks left for that one this year, but it should give me an idea of if its worth it to do this one starting next spring. Compared to the regular craft shows, the sales are pretty small, but its enough to keep me hopping at the forge since real life limits my time there to a couple of hours a day, at most. And, some weekends I'm walking out of there with a few hundred bucks extra for the family budget, so seems like a no brainer for me to keep going. As far as what has sold for me... it varies week to week. A few weeks ago, I had several knives out and every single one of them sold, and its been a struggle to get anymore done, but the couple I have completed since then, just sit there... Two weeks ago I sold almost every wall hook I had taken... but some weeks, they just sit there. Even after doing this for most of the summer, I still can't get a good gauge on what sells the best. The camping tripod I set up in front of my tent draws a ton of attention, but hasn't sold. Bottle openers sell pretty well... especially the themed ones... horse heads, wizards, dice... as long as I can keep them in the $20 range, I seem to sell those pretty regularly. We have a ton of breweries in the area and the craft beer people enjoy them...but we also have a ton of wineries and I've only sold one cork screw over the same time. 5 hours ago, Dustin Quade said: I love the pattern that you got with this one and the fact that the handle shows people less versed in knife making what it was made from really appeals to me. I recently successfully forge welded my first piece of cable and im very excited to see what it etched like now. What did you use for your etching? I use diluted ferric chloride for etching. For this one, I gave it three 20 minute etching cycles with a light sanding with 1200 between each cycle. I was going to give it one more cycle, but it was getting late, I was tired, and I just needed to get it done to get on the table the next morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackegg Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 That's beautiful Heap... I love it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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